During the recent 2001 State of the State Address, Governor Jim Hodges addressed many of the South Carolina's most pressing issues. He outlined several suggestions to help with one of this year's key issues, highway safety. Governor Hodges stated that although "teenagers make up less than four percent of the drivers in South Carolina," they are actually "responsible for twice that number of traffic fatalities." He also noted that "many of these crashes happen late at night." Therefore, the Governor challenged the legislature "to adopt a youth driving curfew – no teenager drivers on our roads after midnight" ("State of the State Address"). Senate Bill 168, as this proposal is now called, has become far more than just a youth driving curfew and is sure to yield almost entirely unfavorable results, if any results at all, for South Carolina.
             This bill's initially meritorious purpose, to restrict nighttime driving for all teens under 18, was designed to protect teenagers because, according to Hodges, "an inordinate number of minors are killed in automobile accidents after midnight" ("Re: Correspondence"). Statistics show that just over one fourth of all fatal collisions for 15 and 16 year olds in South Carolina take place at night (Upchurch). Instituting a teen driving curfew "is a good idea for the simple reason that it will save lives." Similar restrictions have been successful in several other states, including Georgia, Florida, and New York. In fact, "when New York instituted a teen curfew, crashes involving 16-year-old drivers dropped by 62 percent" (Hodges on right). Governor Hodges believes that such a restriction in South Carolina "will, without question, save young lives" ("Re: Correspondence").
             Unfortunately, Senate Bill 168's nighttime driving restrictions are inseparably entangled w...